Author:
Ethel Vaught

Ethel Vaught is a communications coordinator for Texas A&M Information Technology. In the six years she has held this role, Ethel has contributed to many successful projects. She describes herself as an "incrementalist." This perspective helps her empathize with faculty and staff when introducing new technologies to the campus. Ethel received a bachelor's degree in biochemistry from the University of California Davis. She worked in the biotechnology industry developing molecular analysis products prior to moving to College Station.

Due to high demand, the Texas A&M Mobile team is providing another session of the hands-on responsive web design workshop. This training is offered at no charge to A&M System employees. Lunch and training materials will be provided. Please bring your laptop.

The Go Mobile team’s recent focus group and survey revealed making departmental websites mobile friendly is not a high priority for management. A respondent said tools were needed to “help convince my leadership that this needs to be done now and not just soon.” Here are a few ways you might approach this problem.

“[Insert name of top competitor]’s website is already mobile friendly”
Look at peer institution websites (vision2020.tamu.edu/peer-institutions) to see how far along they are in going mobile. If your top competitors are already mobile friendly, your department is falling behind. If many aren’t mobile friendly, your department has an opportunity to become a leader in this area.

“Students hate our website”
Survey students within your majors about whether the current site adequately supports access from mobile devices. Take the opportunity to find out what content is the most important to students, which will be helpful when redesigning your site.

“The latest website redesign was in the last century”
A Chanel suit is timeless. A website design, not so much. In your survey, ask students about how they feel about the website’s design. Results may help your leadership understand an outmoded, poorly designed site speaks more powerfully in a negative way than they thought.

“Faculty hate our website, too”
This could pose some difficulties in obtaining information, so you may need to be a bit “sneakier.” For example, if your department is conducting a job search, ask the committee chair if the website shows the department in the best light. The current site may not be meeting faculty needs for reasons other than lack of mobile friendliness.

We know having a great website isn’t one of the metrics by which your department is assessed. However, it is a very important tool that helps departments achieve their goals.

Join the Texas A&M Mobile Team for a practical, hands-on workshop on implementing a responsive website. The no-charge one-day course will be offered on two separate days to accommodate interested participants. Please bring your laptop. Lunch and training materials provided. Training is open to members of The Texas A&M University System.

August 28,2013 was another record day for Wi-Fi use at Texas A&M University. Networking & Information Security reported a new record of 68,108 unique users in a 24-hour period. Last Fall semester’s record was 61,736, set on November 28, 2012. Yesterday’s peak usage was 30,733, just short of last Fall’s record of 31,013, also set on November 28. So far this semester, user sessions in a 24-hour period have been averaging about 1.1 million sessions. The current record for user sessions in a 24-hour period was set last Fall semester at 1,618,420 on September 19, 2012.